


What next? (Or how the only solace sometimes is in the dark corner of your head)

by Reshikratia



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: A bit on the crack-ish side, A look inside Daisy's head, Canon Compliant, Daisy cursing her fate, Gen, Inspired by Dexter, Lots of daydreaming, POV Skye | Daisy Johnson, The Framework, and power fantasies, directly post episode, not Grant Ward friendly, post 4x15, to escape the dark dark reality
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-03
Updated: 2017-04-03
Packaged: 2018-10-14 12:42:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10536690
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reshikratia/pseuds/Reshikratia
Summary: When Daisy finds out exactly who is her boyfriend in the framework, she wonders what the hell she is supposed to do. Because there's no way she'll just take this lying down. Here is the exact retelling of her train of thought.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Don’t know anything about 4x16, didn’t see any spoilers. Just me having fun with where canon left us.

As she opens her eyes she feels herself falling into water. Panic runs through her, because the last thing Simmons told her when they got ready to hack into the Framework was that dying there would kill her for real. And now she is plugged into her computer-generated version and she’s fucking drowning? _What the hell?_ It can’t be possible, she can’t have _that much_ bad luck.

As she sputters while water enters her nose and mouth she feels a cold sleek surface against her back. This allows her to calm down a bit and think. And now that she thinks about it the water is weird. She would know, after all she has had quite the mouthful of it. Focusing, she finally puts her finger on it: soap. The water is soapy. She finally gets it and lets her head come back up above the surface. Yep, she’s in a bathtub. Her digital double was just taking a bath when she entered into its head. 

Deciding to focus on her surrounding to forget that she’s almost drowned into a bath, -and _ouch_ that’s really embarrassing, another secret to take to her grave- she looks around. She’s in a large bathroom, pretty well equipped. But she doesn’t recognize it, this is a place she’s never seen before. The light filtering through the window hurts her eyes, she’s too used to the darkness of the playground and then the Quinjet. Looking more closely she cannot for the life of her find anything that would suggest this isn’t reality. No glitchy background, no ill-placed pixel, everything feels exactly as it should be. And _wow_ , the server space that must be used in order to run things that smoothly must be _huge_ , like so huge she gets a headache thinking about it.

A beep interrupts her musing. Looking behind her she sees a phone. Knowing that her double has a life inside the Framework is a thing, but actually receiving a message probably from another AI makes it much more real. She’s not just some NPC always in the same place and repeating the same three lines of dialogue. She’s in a reality in and of itself. The realization raises all her cautiousness and its with great apprehension that she takes the phone. She now know that she has a set life and cannot stray too far from the path she was given if she doesn’t want to make her hacking obvious. She’ll have to figure out what’s her place as she goes along. 

However when she checks the message all those thoughts fly out of the window. She has a boyfriend? _Lincoln_ , she thinks, _she hopes_ with everything. Could it be that he’s still alive there and they live happily? The questions flash too fast for her to grasp most of it, especially as her heart hammers against her chest painfully, urging her to get going and see him. Her feelings are all over the place as she gets off the bathtub, puts on a robe, and opens the door where her supposed boyfriend sleeps.

Walking slowly she approaches the figure covered by thick white sheets, as scared as she is eager to discover this special person in this life. But suddenly the earnestness fades and dread starts to fill the void it leaves behind. Something is not right. What Daisy can see of the person in bed doesn’t match what she recalls of Lincoln. Arms too big and long. Figure too broad. And most obviously a mop of black hair sticking out where blonde locks should be. 

She _knows_ then. The revelation hits her so hard she’s left panting for breath, desperate to escape. It cannot be possible, _it can’t be true_. But she knows it is. In the Framework she’s made her life with _Ward_. Closing her eyes she tries to get a lid on the torrent of emotions that try to drown her almost as efficiently as the bathtub incident did. She feels her brain sputtering, looking for oxygen in the form of sense, of _why_. 

Will she never be rid of this guy? When he’s dead he comes back as the vessel of an Inhuman monster. When he’s been turned into dust in the void of outer space he becomes her boyfriend in the fake reality built by a demonic book. Fuck this. It can’t be true. She refuses it. What next? When she comes back into the real world she discovers that he’s been downloaded into an LMD? No. _No no no no no_. There’s an explanation. There must be. 

Almost unconsciously her brain starts trying to make up scenarios of what’s going to happen in the next few seconds. Of how this encounter will play out.

* * *

_“Hey!” Daisy says as she rouses the sleeping man into wakefulness, “I know this is awkward, but I think there was a mistake made. See, I’m looking for my boyfriend and I’m afraid that one of us is in the wrong room.”  
_

_“Skye?” Ward replies, eyes still glassy from sleep. He looks confused and a little concerned as he says “What are you talking about? I am your boyfriend.”  
_

_It’s too much. With her last hope dashed -he even called her_ Skye _\- she collapses next to the bed and curls into a small ball, sobbing her heart out. There’s no point anymore. It’s not worth it. All hope is gone, life is meaningless and she’ll just wait there and die._

No. Daisy thinks putting a stop to the daydream playing out in her head. She’s stronger than this. And as much as she wants to collapse and let despair drags her to depth unknown she can’t. She has a drive, friends to save, an evil AI to defeat, and Simmons is waiting for her. All the crying and despairing? It will probably happen but inside her securely locked behind three thick walls of compartmentalization and sarcasm. Next.  

* * *

_“Hey!” Daisy says as she pats the sleeping man to wake him up. “Ward, how strange to meet you there!” She stays away from the guy, distance will surely help lessen the blow, as she pours herself a glass of water because she still has the nasty taste of soap on her tongue. Well, that and the presence of Ward too, but this she can’t wash off with water. “I’m wondering if I missed something but why are you here? Isn’t it my room?”_

_She drinks slowly as Ward sits up looking at her as if she’s grown two additional heads during her little chat up. He stays silent for a bit and she thinks that maybe he’s getting the hint and this is all just a misunderstanding and he will leave as if nothing happened._

_“Skye,” he starts with his brow furrowed, “Are you okay? I mean, is this some kind of joke I’m not getting?”_

_“Of course not!” She laughs and it rings very false, but that’s okay she can go through with it. “I’m seriously confused. What are you doing here?”_

_“We live together.” He explains slowly as if she’d just hit her head very hard. “For awhile now. You know, as a couple?”_

_And once again this is too much. She chokes on the water trickling done her throat and starts to gasp for breath. Ward jumps out of the bed in worry and dashes toward her. Putting himself tight against her back he circles her stomach with his arms and pulls, trying to make her spit back the water. Except that having him so close to her has the opposite effect as her skin crawls, her throat closes and she trashes against him. He frenetically hits her back as the water continues its descent into her lungs and she feels faint, white taking over her vision._

Yep not a good idea. Daisy thinks as once again she rejects the simulation. That’s obviously not that bright of her to try to talk with him while drinking. And after her scuffle with the bathtub she thinks it better to stay away from water for a little while. Seriously dying because of a _conversation_? Almost as embarrassing as dying of a bath. Next.

* * *

_“Hey, wakey, wakey, sleepy head!” Daisy singsongs as she roughly shakes Ward’s frame. “You’ve got some ‘splaining to do.”  
_

_Ward grumbles a bit but stirs up, looking at her with half-closed eyes. “Skye?”_

_“Yep that’s me! Now can you tell me something, because I just got the weirdest text ever. It seemed to imply we were in a relationship, sooooo care to explain?”  
_

_“That’s too early for this Skye. Don’t tell me you’re having cold feet again. I’m not going to leave you. Honest. I love you and we are going to stay together for a long, long time.” Ward smiles as reaches out for her hand, he obviously means to be reassuring but that has the opposite effect._

_Daisy flinches away from the arm and stands up, all righteous fury. “Okay this is how it’s going to go. First I’m not your girlfriend, forget about this immediately. Second my name’s Daisy, you better learn it. Third you don’t need to actually because if you talk to me again I’ll castrate you. Fourth stay out of my way, stay silent and do as if nothing ever happened or you get one between the eyes, which is much less than you deserve. Understood?”_

_Ward’s eyes darken more and more the longer she goes with her rant and when she’s finished he looks positively furious. He reaches for under his pillow and pulls out a gun that he points at her. No hesitation, all ice and murder in his gaze._

_“Alright, I don’t who you are. Or what you think you’re doing but you’re going to tell me right now where is Skye!”  
_

_Daisy reaches out to take care of him but is shot in the chest before she can do more than lift a finger._  

Alright, so the honest option is obviously not going to cut it. Not with this psycho, Daisy muses as she puts this possible scenario in her brain garbage bin. She’ll have to try to be more preemptive maybe. Next.

* * *

_“Hey!” Daisy shouts as she jumps on the bed and kicks Ward awake. He shots up and looks at her in confusion as she stretches her arm out toward his head and lets out powerful vibrations. “That’s for bringing your bastard’s face before my eyes once again, jackass!”  
_

_Before he can even react his head snaps back along with his neck. A satisfying crack resonates through the room as Ward collapses like a stringless puppet unto the bed. Dead. His face is frozen in shock, confusion, and betrayal. How fitting Daisy thinks darkly as she stares upon his broken form. What a deserved ironic twist of fate. Now she just has to clean this up and go along with some kind of explanation for Ward’s “unfortunate” demise._

Yeah. That’s a good one, Daisy nods internally. This is one option she could totally go with. Though she doesn’t really know if her powers are present in this reality. Well; she’s sure she can find a gun easily in this room. After all _Ward_ is there. It shouldn’t be too difficult, there’s probably a small armory hidden in the room. Yep, that’s totally doable. 

Except she doesn’t know anything about her life yet and how important Ward is to her position. She can’t make hasty moves without having the slightest clue as to their possible ramifications. So with a disappointed sigh she mentally waves the simulation away, rejected.

* * *

Well, looks like she’s going to have to play ball with this jerkass. That’s okay, she can do it. Just channel all the rage into her purpose and fake it till you make it. She knows the drill, done it countless time. Alright, just a few seconds to gather herself before she has to deal with this. 

Breathing deeply she lets all her anger harden into steel to harness for her mission and wills away all the voices ushering her to deal with this guy right now. 

“I’m _so_ glad I shot you.” She mutters under her breath, because it’s at least a small comfort to know that she already dealt him some payback. “And I hope I get to do it again.” Yep this thought definitely makes her feel better and the coming moment more palatable. 

Who knows, she’ll maybe even let Simmons do the honor, she’s pretty sure she’s the only one left from the BUS that has had yet to dish some revenge on him. Approaching the bed slowly, she shakes Ward awake. 

“Hey!” She says, with a smile that’s all teeth and sharp edges etched unto her face. “Just got a text, we’re needed.”

Ward nods slowly as he rouses from his slumber. He doesn’t notice the clear warning in the smile or the threat in her eyes. Nor does he pick up on the ice underlining her much too sweet words. A true testament to the master craft that the Framework is, Ward a simple NPC is still too human to pick up on things when he feels safe with someone he trusts, and with his brain too muddled from sleep. 

 _Perfect_ , Daisy thinks. Human weakness she can roll with. She’s a master of the art, she knows this as a human disaster herself. As Ward rises and goes toward the bathroom, his back foolishly turned toward her, her smile loses its sugary quality, smoothing down into the real shark smirk lurking underneath. Daisy watches him go and thinks “ _Soon_ ”. 

**Author's Note:**

> I hoped you enjoy this little fun piece. You can find me on [Tumblr.](https://areshihai.tumblr.com/) Don't hesitate to shoot me up, I'm open to any gushing about AOS (or other things).


End file.
